In Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, women dressed as “handmaids” from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale in protest of a bill that would effectively ban most abortions after 13 weeks of pregnancy — more than 10 weeks earlier than the 23 to 24 week legal benchmark set by Roe v. Wade. Images of the women, wearing long red robes, white bonnets, and staring ‘meekly’ at the floor of the statehouse while male politicians fought over their reproductive rights, drew strong reactions online.

In a number of recent protests across the country, women have dressed as “handmaids” as a statement about what some have decried as nationwide attacks by conservatives on issues pertaining to abortion and women’s rights. In Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which has also recently been adapted to TV by Hulu, religious fanatics took over the U.S. government and relegated women designated as “handmaids” to be sex slaves, whose purpose was solely to produce children.

In a recent statement, Atwood herself took aim at a recent abortion law passed in Texas for making it “virtually impossible” for women in Texas to obtain abortions.